Down the beach with the Ace250

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Sandta

Sandta

Joined
Jun 4, 2014
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Location
Newcastle, NSW
This was my first time detecting. Spent about 3 hrs cleaning up the beach with my new Ace250.
Although the finds were mostly bits of foil and bottle caps , the back drop was amazing... Beautiful sunny mornng , Thunder and lightning out at sea , trailer boats on the fishing grounds and 3or 4 whales were puting on a show ,breaching,as they cruised up the coastline. ... What an awesome morning!
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Good to see you are taking all the rubbish with you, sounds like you had a great time despite only a few good targets. That's the way I view it, having fun out in the fresh air, and the bonus is a few coins to go with it.

Not too many medium to shallow targets around this time of the year to suit the Ace. Summer time runs over the beach after having people flocking to the area all day is its forte, light, easy to swing, and that distinctive belltone over all the goldies.

Did you run in all-metal, or just with the iron discriminated out? :)
 
Gday Goldpick thanks for your response and comments. It was a great morning ... I forgot to mention there were sky divers too . Even if i hadnt found any coins ,it was an easy cut your teeth session. I guess i was doing all the right things as i did find things . I was in all metal mode and dug everything( that was the consensus from yourself and all the other posts ive read on here) . Definitely take all rubbish away, less junk signals for any future visits(for everybody) ALWAYS LEAVE A PLACE BETTER THAN WHEN YOU ARRIVED . Shame on anyone who doesnt.

I had another go this arvo , different location , slightly better result
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I even got an ouch for my efforts :(
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Gday all, i went down to the beach this morning , gave my newly modified scoop a try, it works quite well..
Unfortunately got called into work( its my turn 'on call')
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2x 20c
1x 5c
And a big lump of .. ?something? ( not sure if its all metal or something encrusted together)
 
Went out again this arvo , found a spot to have ago on way home from the job.
Had a better result this time, found my first gold coin , an extremely poor condition half penny( i cant make out a date or what head is on it) and a 925 charm bracelet( :cool: that made me smile), plus a couple of coins and few sinkers
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Amazingly , i found the crab about 3 feet away from the bracelet 8)

I stopped at a kids playground too... Was empty when i got there but soon had a couple of dads with kids turn up.
No one questioned or bothered me so i kept at it... Only found foil and bottle tops
I did get a few other hits though , but the indicator showed them to be about 6 inches down , so decided not to dig them as the pile of bark mounting as i tried the first couple looked like i was digging a 6 foot deep hole. I didnt want someone to think i was being destructive. I didnt realise how much bark compacts, im not sure if a coin would be that deep in such hard packed bark. I will go back and dig them one night just to find out what is there.
 
Thanks duck, was only my 4th outing , all metal mode ... Dig everything! Cant wait for confidence to know, and sort treasure from trash :)
Ive certainly been doing my share of community service :D
P.S. didnt you like the avatar pic i got you?
 
lol yes i did but had to use a pic of me
Everyone should really have a test garden of coins and trash and label it with icy pole sticks and then try different things with your dicrim you will learn more in half an hour doing this than weeks in the field
 
Ye, me too ... But i dont always wear that red suit.
Test area great idea , not practical at my place , tried on kitchen bench but it just goes
nuts indoors. Must be electrical field from wiring i guess
 
Got to be happy with the bracelet and pre-dec after only a few hunts! Regarding the 6" target in the bark, you will find that coins work their way down to the dirt base. The bark tends to compact down over time, with the council usually topping up or totally replacing the bark on an annual basis. You tend to get a lot of 5 & 10c coins working their way through, with the odd goldy. Coin targets usually come up as a resonably stong signal in pinpoint mode, hence why I scan the bark in pinpoint mode first. The discrimination tends to get pretty iffy 6" and beyond, along with the depth indicator. :)
 
Gday ,thanks Goldpick,happy? Im surprised you didnt hear the WOO-HOO from your place :p definately encouraging thats for sure.
" scan the bark in pinpoint mode" ? Do you simply mean ,searching/swinging ,with finger pressing the pin point button?
I read an article by Silver, while i was on GC, he was describing his method of scaning the beach with his Ace250 comparing to his mate with xtera 305. He mentions seaching in 'scan' mode.... I wonder if he is talking about the same thing? ( as there is no scan mode nor button)
Darren

Now im off to repair that flimsy scoop....
 
Scanning with the Ace involves just holding the pinpoint button down so you can hear the targets in true all metal. The downside is that the background threshold tends to rise the longer it is held down, just lift your finger off the button and the threshold will reset. Not the intended use for the pinpoint button, but works all the same. Once you get your ear in on the different responses that coins and junk targets give off in the pinpoint mode, you can generally just give areas like tot lots a quick scan, then double check in discrimination mode if the target is shallow enough to be read correctly.

The general concensus is to dig all targets that have a repeatable signal swinging both left to right and right to left with the detector. Get a coin target beyond 6", and the discrimination will start guessing what the target is, often giving a broken signal, or only register with one swing of the detector, and nothing the other direction. This is where all-mode is useful to hear the strength, size and footprint of the target once the discrimination is beyond its effective depth.

The x-terra 305 has a true selectable all-metal mode and adjustable threshold, so you can run continually in that mode for scanning all metal targets. Running in all metal mode on both detectors will allow you to obtain the maximum depth that the detector is capable of, discrimination mode will always reduce the effective depth of the detector, but with the obvious added advantage of not picking up undesirable targets.

You are correct regarding what Silver does with his Ace, same thing. :)
 
Spent an hour , after days work in Forster, at a little beach next to kiddies wadeing pool, before heading home
2x foil drink bottle seals 8.(
 
I went to a kids playground tonight . Digging up the bark is not that difficult , but a little hole produces a mountain of spoil. wasnt that easy to spot the coins as the tarnish blended very well with the bark. I only found 2 coins( 1x20c , 1x5c) plus the usual type of rubbish.
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The Ace 250 is a great unit. I started off on one and it had me hooked. Upgraded to an AT Pro after only a week and a half and it got me even more hooked as I was able to hunt water without worrying about dropping it in the drink. Now using Excal 11 and CTX 3030 (mainly a beach and water hunter and I love it). This hobby is fantastic! Best advice I can give relating to your post -get yourself a pinpointer! It will make recovery so much easier, and quicker. They are worth every penny and you'll wonder what you did without it. Happy hunting.(I haven't posted on here for a long time. I think I need to do some catch-up posts). Cheers.
 

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